Chapter 612 - 609: The Limitations of the Finger Insect

Chapter 612: Chapter 609: The Limitations of the Finger Insect

Standing blankly in the sea of sand, Mo Ling felt a terror he had never known before.

His stiffened body dared not take another step forward.

The sea of sand was chillingly cold. In the past, a fire would burn in Mo Ling’s heart, sustaining him. But now, that fire seemed to have been extinguished, leaving him without even the courage to slightly bend his body.

’Maybe I should just stop here...’

’It’s enough. I’ve touched enough of the world, seen enough beauty. I’m already so much better than my ignorant brethren. I’m just a weak Finger Insect. There’s no need to push myself.’

And yet, the thought of retreating back to the cave filled Mo Ling with a bitter reluctance.

If he had stayed in the cave from the very beginning, he wouldn’t have felt so unwilling.

Now that he had seen how vast the world was and personally touched so many wondrous things, he couldn’t bear to return.

In that moment, Mo Ling understood the old Finger Insect’s resignation.

’This is the limit of what a Finger Insect can touch...’

The chilly night wind swept over Mo Ling’s body. Fine grains of sand pelted his form, stinging him with pain.

Mo Ling touched his own body and realized that, without his noticing, he had become much coarser.

As he touched the world, the world changed him in return. Hard, rough calluses had formed on his body, and the patterns that once defined him had been worn away until they were faint and blurry.

Feeling these changes in himself, Mo Ling became lost in thought.

’Am I... still me?’

’Touching can’t change the world, but it can change me?’

As the fine sand scraped across his coarse joints, a hazy thought entered Mo Ling’s mind. He remembered his brethren in the cave. ’I’ve been traveling for so long. If I went back now, would they even recognize me?’

This was the longest Mo Ling had spent in thought since his journey began.

His thoughts drifted from disaster to the world’s beauty, from the ignorant colony of Finger Insects to the future of his kind, from the sea to the endless desert, from the memory of soft jelly to the reality of his rough calluses.

Until sunlight once again spilled down, falling upon his body, which had long grown cold.

Mo Ling stirred. Bending his body, he began to crawl forward once more.

As warmth seeped into his entire being, the beauty of the world once again vanquished his inner fear.

There are some longings that not even death can stop.

Mo Ling crawled ever forward. He scaled surging dunes and skirted treacherous quicksand, finally making his way out of the sea of sand.

When his tip once again made contact with damp soil, he knew he had escaped the desert.

’There are so many trees here.’

Mo Ling gently touched the cylindrical object before him. It took him a long time to circle the trunk just once. Its massive girth and thick bark told him this was a very ancient tree.

Bending his body, Mo Ling climbed the tree.

However, before he could touch the soft leaves, he felt his body being snatched up by something hard. He was lifted from the trunk and went soaring through the air.

’What is this? Is this a disaster, too?’

Before Mo Ling could even react, the thing tossed him into a round enclosure made of twigs.

Immediately after, Mo Ling felt his body being relentlessly attacked by sharp objects. They seemed to want to pierce his body and devour his flesh.

But these sharp objects were also competing with each other, and Mo Ling could only thrash about, trying to evade the attacks.

But his struggles seemed to be in vain. The hard object clamped onto him again, tossing him back among the sharp things.

Mo Ling felt his body was about to be split open.

He curled into a ball. If not for the bit of protection offered by his rough calluses, he would have already been torn to a bloody pulp.

In this moment of crisis, that strange feeling rose within Mo Ling once more.

He touched the sharp objects attacking him, committing their forms to his mind. Then, with him as the epicenter, a small, cube-shaped void materialized, slicing through the twigs below and the sharp objects beside him.

Mo Ling felt warm liquid splash onto his body. He felt the vibration of the sharp objects falling onto the branches. The round, twig-woven enclosure seemed to be giving way, slowly disintegrating.

Before long, the twigs beneath him scattered, and Mo Ling fell from the crumbling structure.

Just when he thought he had escaped, he was snatched up again by the hard object.

This time, the force it used felt immense, as if it were furious.

It was only then, belatedly, that Mo Ling understood. This was another living creature, and it was hunting him!

But no matter how much Mo Ling struggled, he could not escape the creature’s grasp.

The creature, still holding him, landed on a branch. Then, Mo Ling felt another tremendous force seize the base of his body.

’It’s trying to tear me in half!’

Alarm bells screamed in Mo Ling’s mind. He tried to use his power again, but the pain was so intense he nearly blacked out.

In his daze, Mo Ling suddenly realized he could no longer feel the lower half of his body.

’Have I been torn in two?’

The searing pain was gone, replaced by a persistent numbness.

’I was torn apart... before I could even grasp its full form?’

Mo Ling once again felt the frailty of being a Finger Insect. He wanted to use the power that had saved him twice, but the creature continued to torment him. His consciousness grew increasingly dim, and he could no longer focus.

Just as despair took hold, the creature’s assault suddenly ceased. It collapsed onto the branch. Mo Ling felt only a tremor, and when he probed toward the source of the vibration, his touch met only warm liquid.

’Did it fall? Who did this?’

Mo Ling’s body was growing ever weaker. Torn in half, he didn’t have long to live. He could only force himself to hang on, wanting to touch just a little more of the world.

And yet, he didn’t even know the identity of the creature that had harmed him.

Frailty was the lifelong companion of a Finger Insect. Mo Ling had done his best—he had faced two disasters and stared down death twice.

In these moments before death, Mo Ling felt no regret. Leaving the cave was his choice. Seeking adventure was his choice.

The memories of everything he had ever touched surfaced in his mind, one by one.

’If I had never left the cave, I would never have felt any of this, would I?’ In that instant, Mo Ling understood what the old Finger Insect must have felt before its death.

The approach of death seemed to make his senses more acute. Familiar textures manifested in his mind, appearing constantly like phantom sensations.

’Hard, soft, coarse, smooth, tangible, intangible...’

’So beautiful... so beautiful.’

He was touching none of it, yet he was feeling all of it once more.

Sunlight filtered through the treetops, illuminating the fading body.

For frail creatures, the world is fraught with peril and disaster. They can never know which will arrive first—death, or the morning sun.

All they can do is clumsily reach out a finger, to touch a future shrouded in mist...